


Drifted

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [47]
Category: True Blood
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Awkward Conversations, F/M, Female Friendship, Fix-It, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Non-Sexual Bondage, Safe Sane and Consensual, Sex Talk, Vampire Family, agency and choices!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-21
Updated: 2014-06-21
Packaged: 2018-02-05 14:09:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1821223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eric winds up calming Nora down in a very "them" way; the next night, the fact that Willa discovers them prompts a discussion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drifted

**Author's Note:**

> Part five, "Biting Down."

Nora must have circled the room seven times, stripping off clothes as she goes, when Eric, who’s been undressed since their door shut, finally says, “Relax.”

She pulls a face. “Why am I the only one who’s panicking about this?”

“You’re not,” he shrugs. “But Pam and the babies are presumably doing the useful thing and resting up for the big night, and you’ve already planned it out as well as you possibly could, and I –”

“You’re staying awake for the sole purpose of telling me what to do, apparently.”

It’s not meant that way at first, but the second it’s said, it creates a charge in the air.

“Do you want me to?” he asks. “You have been rather in that mood today.”

“Who’s the one who just _couldn’t_ resist the idea of blindfolding me and fucking me when I had those knee socks on earlier tonight?” she retorts, but then all of a sudden she tilts her head, struck with a new idea. “Maybe – maybe I am in the mood a little.” She goes to the appointed drawer, pulls out some violet rope. “But I don’t want to fuck right now.”

He understands. She only asks for this alone if she’s really upset, but for that reason especially he’ll oblige. “Come here,” he says, and once she’s close enough he takes the rope from her hands and nods. “This would be the time for requests.”

“Simple,” she mutters. “Nothing that’s going to keep me up and aroused.”

“You’re going to be aroused no matter what I do,” he teases.

Which of course means she’s going to reach out and smack him in the arm. “There’s a difference between _sweet dreams_ and _fuck me now_.”

“Point taken.” He drops to his knees, loops a length of rope around her ankles. “Simple.”

The rope goes around three and four times, knots in the front. There’s next to no give, her balance is already getting a bit skewed, it’s just the way she likes it. Just the way she needs it.

“Partway there,” she singsongs.

“You’re the bossiest submissive imaginable,” he tells her.

“That’s because I’m a domme who only subs for you,” she points out, holding her arms out to him.

He takes the hint, gathering her wrists in one hand and tying them with another rope. “Better?” he asks as he picks her up and holds her close to him.

“Put me to bed,” she says, as resolute as anyone already going drifty can be.

 

* * *

 

When she was a kid, Willa always used to run into her parents’ room on Christmas morning. She would jump right onto their bed and bounce on her knees, she’d tug on their comforter until they’d wake up, and after they put on their bathrobes and things, her mom would take her hand and they’d all walk downstairs to the Christmas tree together. She just couldn’t stand to wait any longer than she absolutely had to.

This, she realizes, is… kind of the same thing. Except instead of it being Christmas presents she’s giddy about, it’s kicking ass, and instead of her parents with their pajamas and bathrobes, it’s Eric and Nora with apparently nothing on at all, from what glimpses of skin she can see peeking out from under their sheets. Nothing except… huh.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Eric lifts his head, smiles innocently at his youngest. “What would make you think that?” he asks.

“I just...” Willa scrunches up her nose and nods toward the spectacle of sorts before her. There have been potential spectacles before, she’s realizing, but this one is kinda unavoidably that. “Uh… y’know. Is Aunt Nora tied up?”

Nora smiles too, though she hasn’t yet moved or opened her eyes. “Yes,” she says, like it’s the most normal thing in the world or like there’s no use trying to keep it a secret any more. (Really, they could only shine the girl on so many times.)

“Why?” Willa asks.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Nora explains. Or anyway it sounds like she thinks she’s explaining, but Willa’s more puzzled than ever.

Eric throws the covers off, climbing from the bed and shrugging as he goes to his closet. He seems in no particular hurry to untie Nora, and she in no particular hurry to get untied. “Would I be correct in assuming you’re not well-versed in bondage?”

Willa makes another face, sinking into the armchair. “I told you before,” she hisses, embarrassed. “I’m basically a virgin.”

Somehow, Nora manages to swing around and sit up and balance so gracefully even with her wrists and ankles bound, but apparently she’s got practice or something, and oh, oh gosh, there are her breasts. At least the way she’s positioned, she’s pretty well hidden – well, elsewhere. Which so isn’t the case with Eric (not that he’s seeming to even notice).

“Bondage doesn’t have to be about sex,” Nora says patiently. “Any kink can be perfectly platonic if you want it to be.”

“But you guys…”

“Yes, we do,” Eric chimes in, and – thank goodness – he’s at least pulled some pants on by now.

The only thing Willa can think of to say is, “I’m confused.” That’s pretty much stating the obvious, but it’s better to say it than to sit here totally quiet like an idiot.

Eric and Nora exchange glances. After all, better she learn it from them than someone else. “Think of it like this,” Eric says. “The last time you dated someone, you did things with them that weren’t sexual, yes? Going to the movies or –”

“Doing projects together,” Nora interjects. “Mutual hobbies.”

“In high school, my boyfriend and I would learn violin duets,” Willa supplies.

“Exactly,” Nora beams. “Bondage is a hobby of ours, just like the violin was a hobby of yours.”

Willa honestly can’t see how playing music with someone – which is something you can do for _class_ and in _public_ – has anything in common with tying them up, but she’s hoping if she just keeps listening she’ll figure it out.

“I thought the point of it was the sex, though, like – I dunno, mixin’ it up?” she offers.

“Oftentimes, yes,” Nora agrees. Eric has appeared behind her, a hairbrush in hand, and she leans back against him for a moment before he begins to brush her hair for her. “For me, at least, I would never presume to say for anyone else, it’s a matter of emotional intimacy as well as physical. I love Eric, and sex is a part of that closeness, but I would also trust him with my life, unequivocally, and that’s why I feel comfortable asking him to tie me up.”

“Okay,” Willa says. “So love means sex, and love means trust, and trust means bondage, and –”

“Love and trust aren’t mutually exclusive,” Nora interrupts. “I’ve had plenty of lovers that I adored and didn’t ask to tie me up. It requires a very certain understanding.”

“You always have been poetic when you talk about your allegedly deviant sex life,” Eric murmurs fondly, kissing the top of Nora’s head and setting the brush down.

She rolls her eyes, but she still turns her head up for a proper kiss, just the briefest of ones, and he obliges. “Anyway, at least for me it’s a matter of letting go,” she continues.   “Sometimes, yes, that takes the form of kinky sex, where the point is that I’m not in control of what happens but I trust that Eric’s going to make me happy and give me what I need.”

“And it’s something that I can get enjoyment from, aesthetically or sexually or sometimes just because it feels good to know you’ve made someone you care for feel good,” Eric cuts in before moving to the closet and starting to rummage.

“And occasionally it takes the form of simpler, less sexual things,” Nora adds. “Allowing Eric to calm me the hell down and take care of me if I need it.”

Well, it’s been pretty apparent since the moment Willa first watched her Maker and his sister interact that they take care of each other in a way, but it’s also been pretty clear that Nora isn’t the best at accepting help in a lot of ways. “When you put it that way, it sorta makes sense,” she muses. “Gettin’ yourself to a place you feel safe an’ protected.”

“Will this one do?” Eric interrupts, holding one of Nora’s many leather jackets up.

And Nora glances over her shoulder to look. “Splendidly,” she agrees, then turning her attention back to Willa.  “The term is more recent than the phenomenon, of course, which is true of a lot of the language associated with kink, but it’s what’s known as subspace,” she says.

“’Cause submission?” Willa clarifies.

“Exactly,” Nora nods, watching and silently approving as Eric – now fully dressed himself – selects a pair of black jeans from her drawer. “For me, it’s a sort of drifting, focusing so much on what’s directly relevant that everything else disappears. Especially when there’s something weighing as heavily on my mind as our little endeavor, but there’s nothing I can do about it at the exact moment, drifting like that can be exceptionally useful.”

“Like a distraction,” Willa supplies.

“A very intense one, yes,” Eric cuts in, laying the clothes out on the bed behind Nora and coming over to kneel in front of her and work on the ropes at her ankles. “Some of us, your aunt included, need a bit more help telling their minds to shut the fuck up.  She’s out of that space now, of course, she’s always been good at slipping out when needed, but she very much needed that help last night.”

Nora huffs indignantly and rather ineffectually swats him with her foot, but she knows he’s right; the way that’s phrased, blunt though it is, actually gets through to Willa more than any of the rest has, and she’s suddenly tugging at her hair and staring at her lap.

Of course, this is a reaction that the older vampires are accustomed to (and truth be told one they were expecting sooner or later in this conversation) so as Eric helps her slide into her jeans and rise to her feet Nora says very softly, “It’s perfectly reasonable to play around with it and figure out which elements do something for you.”

Willa looks up, startled and a bit embarrassed even though she’s not quite sure why. “Yeah, well, I… don’t we have to be upstairs soon?”

Eric and Nora shrug at each other; he unties her wrists, helps her into her tank top and jacket. “Soon,” Nora says. “Be a dear, grab my necklace off the dresser?”

Willa hops up and does just that, turning the little gold heart-clock over in her hands and not for the first time puzzling over it (on top of everything else she’s puzzling over). She doesn’t say anything, but Eric pats her on the shoulder once she’s close enough, chuckling. “I feel like we’ve just given her the Talk,” he says to Nora.

“You did better at it than most parents, even if it’s not quite the same script as usual,” Willa smirks.

She heads upstairs before they do, intending to straighten things up before visitors arrive, and she must have a funny look on her face because when Tara joins her a few minutes later her first reaction is a slightly incredulous “You okay?”

“I’m processin’ some stuff,” Willa says, but with a little smile to show it’s nothing serious. “Give me five minutes, then everything’ll be fine.”


End file.
